Tag: University of Guyana

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Round-robin vote cannot overturn decision of in-person meeting of UG council

It is now fifty years since I qualified as a chartered secretary and never during that time have I ever heard of a round-robin meeting whether by a divided or unanimous vote overruling an in-person meeting of the same body. That appears to be happening at the University of Guyana (UG) in respect of the end-of-term leave for 10th Vice-Chancellor Professor Ivelaw Griffith.

My information is that on April 15 of this year, the Council of UG decided that the Vice Chancellor should proceed on his leave from May 13 but that on May 2, he wrote the Pro-Chancellor Major General (ret’d) Joe Singh indicating instead, that he wanted to be paid in lieu of his leave. It should be mentioned that Mr. Singh is in fact carrying out the functions of the Chancellor by virtue of the failure of the Government and the Minister of Education to fill that important vacancy since November last year.

Incredibly, instead of politely informing the Vice Chancellor of the inappropriateness and impermissibility of his request, Mr. Singh proceeded to instruct the Registrar to send out a notice to Council Members re-opening the issue and effectively the reversal of the April 15 decision.

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Until there is a change in the law UG should register for VAT

I have hesitated to engage in the ongoing debate in the print media on whether the VAT being imposed on educational services extends to fees charged by the University of Guyana. However, because even the media seems unsure, I do not think further hesitation helps.

VAT is not a particularly complex tax and has a few basic principles. Section 9 of the VAT Act imposes VAT on (a), every taxable supply by a taxable person; and (b), on every import of goods or import of services, other than an exempt import. We are here concerned with (a) and can disregard (b). Because the section dealing with taxable person also refers to taxable activity, it seems preferable to look at the definition of “taxable person” before going on to examine taxable activity.

A taxable person is a person who is registered, or who is required to register under section 11 of the Act. “Person” is defined in the Act to include the State, an agency of the State, a local authority, board, natural person, trust, company, and partnership. In other words, there is no automatic or definitional exception of the state or, by extension, educational institutions funded by the State. Continue reading “Until there is a change in the law UG should register for VAT”